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Hmm... First, I'm sorry to reply to so many of your questions, but you ask about exactly the things that we care about most... Of course, elephants should not be captured and forced to earn their living on conditions dictated by humans at all. Given that, caring for elephants is expensive. There are a few places like the Ayutthaya elephant kraal that do try to make a living out of peoples love for taking care of elephants alone, with as little exploitation as possible (rare or unique). Then there are many places that do TRY to treat their elephants well but do not allow them to lead a reasonably good elephant life. Then there is a sliding scale of exploitation down to companies that do not provide shade, any bathing water or frequent feeding for their elephants (the elephant shacks around the Tiger temple being the prime Krabi example - bring a few elephants to the where there are most tourists and let them pay to ride the animals). Sumatek is in between in my view; they appear to care about the animals as well as they can but do not really provide adequate living conditions. For instance, elephants need to submerge themselves in water several times a day to stay comfortably cool in the heat and few places are able to provide a streem deep enough for that.. Does Sumatek spray the elephants with water, and if so, how often? Elephants eat around the clock, not merely lunch and dinner. How many hours a day are they allowed to eat? I don't know.... Around the tourist destinations, there are many places that treat the animals so much worse and a few that treat them better (and I'm not an expert on elephant rights at all, however 2/4 in the family are vegitarians and care a lot about animal rights so we do try to check these things up). A true fighter for animal rights would disagree so badly...

Try to skip those programe that include Elephant baby show, its very cruel and you dont want to know how they treat those poor baby inorder for them to perform a show correctly...Dont believe any ads that say tropical rainforest trekking,you wont see anything because its just a circle around the camp and it take 1hour because the elephant wont keep walking..

Anyone have any suggestions on how to see some elephants without the cruelty? I'm not interested in trekking or riding elephants nor seeing "shows" as I'm worried about cruelty but would love to see some. Is there anywhere to see elephants e.g. wildlife park/ sanctuary in either Phi Phi or Ko Lanta? Appreciate any tips! Thanks!

Kim

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5.
Re: Sumatek elephant place on Ko Lanta?

Jun 20, 2013, 9:17 PM

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